Web Browser

   Web browser is the "window to the web" for Internet users around the world. It is a program that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, sound and other information located on a web page of a web site on the World Wide Web. It enables a user to quickly and easily access information provided on the web pages of the web sites by traversing hyperlinks. The two most popular browser are Internet Explorer by Microsoft and Navigator from Netscape. These browsers are used mainly by Windows based computers. Mosaic was a popular browser used by Macintosh users but today the Mac users use the Microsoft Internet Explorer as their default browser.

Web Browser History

The first widely used web browser was NCSA Mosaic. The Mosaic programming team then created the first commercial web browser called Netscape Navigator, later renamed Communicator, then renamed back to just Netscape. The Netscape browser led in user share until Microsoft Internet Explorer took the lead in 1999 due to its distribution advantage. A free open source software version of Netscape was then developed called Mozilla, which was the internal name for the old Netscape browser, and released in 2002. Mozilla has since gained in market share, particularly on non- Windows platforms, largely due to its open source foundation, and in 2004 was released in the quickly popular FireFox version.